Even on regular bake, after two uses at only 375 degrees, it has blasted hot air into my kitchen through a vent the entire time the oven was on and continued to blast away for an hour after being turned off. After only an hour at 375 degrees, it raised the temperature in my kitchen by 3 degrees, rendering it unusable for much of the year in Philly, not to mention the wasted energy and the annoyance of hot air blasting in your face when you look inside the oven.

KitchenAid claims this is normal and neither the company nor my dealer will take action.Do others have this problem? Are there wall ovens that don't do this? My 10-15 year old basic GE model didn't. I'm waxing nostalgic for even though it heated unevenly.

My Frigidaire double ovens do the same thing. They are mounted in a bank of cabinets. These ovens have to be vented just like a standard electric range has a hole that comes up under a burner to vent the oven. I think KA is correct in saying it's normal and that's why no action is due.

Take comfort in knowing that I live in Florida where it is hard to bring the indoor temperature down below 76 with the AC running at full tilt.

I self-clean it for 3 hours after every chicken ( I have to, or it smokes immediately, not after 30-40 minutes).I have an oven thermometer in there which shows the same temp as the display on the front, before I put the chicken in. Can't open the to verify temp once it has started smoking, because the smoke is thick, that I can't read the thermometer. May try a remote thermometer with a probe. Could be cycling improperly, but Thermador hasn't even mentioned that as a possibilty ( nor did their Service tech) That would mean it is defective, and they say it is not. I am cooking at 375 degrees, which is what Thermador recommends.

Does your oven have a working vent, as I never heard of thick smoke at 375°. I assume that you are roasting the chicken on a open rack in the middle of the oven, so the presence of thick smoke is quite puzzling. What kind of pan are you roasting the chicken on, as it should have sufficient sides/lip to contain any liquids.

Did you preheat the oven and wait until the light is off before inserting the food, as that could possibly be the source of the problem?

I have never encountered this situation, so my broad questions are attempting to cover all possibilities.

It has no vent, as far as Thermador tells me. I have roasted using low sided roasting pan with a V-rack, and then using the botton part of their broil pan with a V-rack, as per their manual. When the drippings hit the pan, they create smoke, and eventually thick molasses like goo which settles all over the walls and floor. I preheat and double check with the oven thermometer, because I realize that the display on the front for the temp is just a guideline. Yes, I use an open rack, no foil or anything like that. I would love to find out what I can do to get a properly cooked chicken. Spending my days fighting with them is not my idea of a good time.

I would double it so it is stiffer, and then make sure then you have 1-2" of space between the chicken, and I would tent only over the sides, so you have plenty of space from front and back for airflow.

I did the foil tent thing for the first 45 minutes, and although it did reduce the smoke, when I removed it to crisp the chicken, huge air blisters developed on the skin (hot air???) and after the resting period with foil, the skin was wrinkled and totally soggy and the drippings were foul tasting. Do you mean that I should only cover the sides and not the front and back? They recommend against a high sided pan, although that is what I used the first time, and had the same problem with smoke. Thanks so much for your imput. I am desperate to figure out howw to cook an acceptable bird. I don't dare try a duck, the darned oven might explode!!!

I'll give that try. We have ordered a remote ambient probe thermometer to check whether the temp is cycling too high and then dropping, which may explain why the thick smoke seems to dissipate slightly, and then increase again. A regular oven thermometer is not able to register quick changes, and since it is in the oven, we can't read it because of all of the smoke.

My approx. 10 year old Amana convection oven, wall oven installed under counter, blasts hot air; it is designed that way to vent heat away from the electronics of the oven. I was told by a repairman that it should have been vented to the outside. (I have not verified this.) I did get used to this, but I resent the noise almost more than the hot air. I do like the results from a convection oven.

I don't understand. If the temperature goes up 3 degrees, your kitchen is unusable? My kitchen temp usually goes up more than 3 degrees when I use the oven, and I cook year around. When I open the oven to check on the contents, I always get a blast of hot air. I always thought hot air out of an oven was normal.

No oven I have ever used has blasted hot air into the kitchen during use. Sure, it's to be expected that one will feel hot air whenever they open the oven door, but while the door is closed? Can that be normal? I am trying to figure out what oven to recommend to my parents. It just gets more and more complicated... and I am getting more and more trepidacious!

I have a GE Profile Performance double wall oven (one is convection) that was installed (and planned for) when the house was built. I can hear that the vent turns on once it reaches a certain temp and it stays on for a period after I've turned off the oven. I think it must the vent must discharge the heat outside, though, since it's definitely not doing it into the kitchen. This would seem to be the most logical solution, unless your house wasn't originally built to accommodate a wall oven -- in that case, perhaps your contractor should have accounted for this?

This is normal practice for built-in ovens. They have to prevent the containing wooden cabinet from getting two hot. The oven itself has a has a number of layers. Broadly there is the inside, then a layer of insulation, then another layer containing the insulation, then an air gap and finally the outer 'support' for the oven which goes in the cabinet. The cooling air is drawn from the kitchen by a sensor-controlled fan which blows it through the air gap and out through a port in the front. The convection fan has nothing to do with the cooling fan. The amount of heat coming out is a measure of the heat escaping the through the insulation.

It may be that some domestic ovens can also be vented externally, but I have never installed such a thing.

I also have an oven that blows hot and cold air on you the whole time you are in the kitchen. This is VERY uncomfortable. It is a Fridgidaire Gallery convection oven. I have never had an oven that blows hot air back into the kitchen before. It makes it impossible to cook on the stove top while the oven is on. Who Designed this??? I know they say it has to cool the inside of the oven, but if you can't stand to be in the kitchen with air blowing on you the whole time who wants to cook?? Therefore, who need to buy these expensive ovens????????????

I believe the venting is for the electronics. This is what a service person told me over a decade ago, after I experienced the hot air and noisy fan of my then new oven. I now have a non convection oven and it does not do this.